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The Ruby in Her Navel

Barry Unsworth

Discussion: June 2024: Europe

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June 2024: Europe

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Feb 02, 2016 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Reading Barry Unsworth's account of life in 12th century Sicily brings forcefuly in focus the famous George Santayana quote I used as an epigraph.
What makes 12 century Sicily so special and so relevant today? It was, for a very short span of time, a viable multi-cultural, interfaith society, where Normans, Saracens, Byzantines, Jews and Papists lived together in almost harmony. It will be brought to ruin by greed, vanity and intoler
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Reading Barry Unsworth's account of life in 12th century Sicily brings forcefuly in focus the famous George Santayana quote I used as an epigraph.
What makes 12 century Sicily so special and so relevant today? It was, for a very short span of time, a viable multi-cultural, interfaith society, where Normans, Saracens, Byzantines, Jews and Papists lived together in almost harmony. It will be brought to ruin by greed, vanity and intolerance (view spoiler)

The main character, whose name (Thurstan Beauchamp) is a clear indication of his mixed Norman and French blood, is a young clerk working in a ministry (Diwan) dominated by Muslims. He is an idealist, who seems ill suited for the actual job he is doing : a spy for the king, with a cover job as a purveyor of pleasures (hiring dancers, singers and acrobats for the king's entertainment). His naivety is endearing in the beginning of the story, when he expresses his admiration for the job the king is doing keeping the peace between the different ethnicities on the island, his respect for his Arab boss and his belief in the rule of law :

... I was swept by a familiar love for this city of Palermo, where I had spent most of my years, for the diversity these sounds expressed, the different faiths that lived together here, the different races that jostled in the markets and laboured on the buildings that were rising everywhere, praying apart and having their cases tried in their own tongues, but all held together in unity by our great King.

The best example Thurstan can give us about what the city of Palermo has to offer is in the description of the Royal Chapel, a key setting of the novel, "where Saracens had carved the wood of the ceiling, Latins made the marble inlays, Greeks set the stones of the mosaics, all working together to make a church where our Norman King could hear the mass."

As a first person narrator, Thurstan can be somewhat excused for trying to paint himself in a positive light, but his later actions speak louder about his envious and vain nature, his ambition to become a knight, his gullibility and the shallowness of his fine principles when confronted with life and death situations (view spoiler) . Overall, his human weakness is what will probably reconcile the reader with the wrong decisions Thurstan makes and his youth might excuse his lack of subtlety in the cloak & dagger business and in the romantic dillema between the two women in his life : the elegant and sophisticated Lady Alicia, and the exotic (Yazidi) belly dancer Nesrin.

She could not have so deceived me if I had not deceived myself; she could not have played me false if I had not aided her in it. I had fashioned her in the form of my desires, I had made her shining, lustrous from our childhood and the time of my hope, bright with the future when she would make that hope come true, a creature of light, not her own, bestowed on her. She had no light of her own ...

All in all, this was an informative, multi-layered historical adventure, more serious than its unfortunately chosen title might suggest, that manages to recreate one of the most exciting moments in early Middle Age history, touching on still relevant issues regarding a multi-cultural society, coupled with a dramatic coming of age story of a young man who learns to see the rust, the dirt and the blood hiding under the shiny armours of the knights and under the immaculate robes of the monks. This disillusionment with both government and religion is another factor that remains relevant in the present day, when young men and women must find the strength and the moral guidance they need in other institutions or creeds.

[I have learned that] ... there had never been a silver barge to keep afloat, that this King to whom I had woved my service, was a man with a face like other faces I had seen, the face of one who lived with us in the dark water, among the other creatures feasting and fighting there.

Barry Unsworth captivated me previously with "The Songs of Kings" and with "Morality Play", and confirmed his status as one of the best in the field with the present historical novel. Next on my radar is "Sacred Hunger", dealing with another thorny subject - slavery.
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Jul 15, 2011 Deedee marked it as to-read

Shelves: 00f-16p-pagecount-has-16, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, booker-prize-nominees, historical-fiction-medieval, world-europe-italy, title-has-girls-name, year-2006, u, booker-prize-nominees-unread

Jan 13, 2013 Ri marked it as to-read_historical

Shelves: _ebook_kindle-available, audio_audible-unavailable, hst_f-semi-fic_biographical-fic, to-read_hstrical_2-soon, to-read_hstrical_3-must, setting-eu_italy, setting-middle-east_asia-minor, setting__05th-14th_medieval

May 28, 2019 Suzanne rated it it was amazing

Jun 19, 2024 Theresa marked it as to-read

Shelves: historical-fiction, next-by-author

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